Charge, orbital and spin ordering in multiferroic BiMn2O5: density functional theory calculations

Abstract

Charge, orbital, and spin ordering of multiferroic BiMn(2)O(5) are investigated by the full-potential linearized augmented plane-wave (FPLAPW) method as implemented in the WIEN2K package. Both the generalized gradient approximation (GGA) as well as GGA plus the one-site Coulomb interaction (GGA+U) methods are considered for the exchange-correlation energy functional. The obtained results show that BiMn(2)O(5) is found stable in ferrimagnetic state with band gap about 1.23 eV. The results suggest that BiMn(2)O(5) contains two kinds of manganese: the ionicity of Mn1 (Mn(4+)) is +3.6 with magnetic moment of 2.40 μ(B) and the ionicity of Mn2 (Mn(3+)) is +3.4 with magnetic moment of 3.22 μ(B). While charge disproportion between Mn1 and Mn2 is small, the difference between e(g) minority occupancies of Mn(3+) and Mn(4+) cations is large. Both these two properties give direct evidence of charge ordering. The analysis of the Born effective charge reveals that the partial ferroelectric polarization (P(ele)) originates from the charge ordering, which is in agreement with a recent work by Brink and Khomskii [J. Phys.: Condens. Matter, 2008, 20, 434217].